A food staple for half the planetís population, rice is one of the
most important crops on earth."

So begins Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life, which focuses on "the
small Indonesian island of Bali" where "rice is life." While it could be
a story of paradise lost, it could also have a happy ending.

Bali is surrounded by water, but the salty water from the Bali Sea
and the Indian Ocean cannot be used for farming. Instead, "farmers must
rely on rain that first falls on the islandís highest peaks ó volcanoes
as tall as 10,000 feet ... from the highest points on the island to the
lowest, an ancient, elaborate water system flows down the hillsides,
through the plains, and out to the ocean. Although Baliís lakes and
rivers exist naturally, a human-made marvel of hydro engineering has
harnessed these waters for more than a thousand years."

Author Jan Reynolds does a laudable job of familiarizing the reader
with this amazing irrigation system through words and photographs.
"Built along this intricate water system like beads on a necklace is a
linked network of temples where water ceremonies take place." Rituals
performed at these temples have not only a religious significance, but
also a social and administrative function: They "connect people living
in one watershed" and "ensure proper supervision and maintenance of the
entire water system."

The author introduces the reader to a boy named Putu and his family,
who prepare rice fields, plant shoots, make scarecrows out of strings
and rags tied to bamboo sticks, harvest the mature rice with traditional
curved knives, dry it in the sun, and pack it into bags. Following the
harvest, the rice stalks are left to rot and replenish the land, and the
familyís ducks visit the fallow fields to eat pests and fertilize the
soil with their manure. "This type of rice farming is a form of
sustainable agriculture, which means the crop can be grown over and
over on the same land, year after year. Since this type of farming does
not use chemicals that could be harmful to the land, air, and water, the
system is also environmentally sustainable. It causes no lasting
damage to the earth."

Does this sound too good to be true? Read on. In the 1960s, "because
Bali was the best rice producer out of the thousands of islands that
make up Indonesia, the government decided that it would make Bali an
even better rice producer," but thatís not what happened. "The big
surprise was that the best rice producer in Indonesia soon became the
worst."

Fortunately, J. Stephen Lansing, an anthropologist from the
University of Southern California, was in Bali studying the system of
water temples at the time of this ironically named "Green Revolution."
With the help of his friend, professor and ecologist James Kremer, he
developed a computer model that in many ways "did what the priests and
farmers had been doing for more than a thousand years."

What boggles the mind is that "government officials began to
understand the valuable and complicated job priests and farmers had
managed. They realized the temple system had coordinated water sharing
and crop rotation better than the government had."

If you want to know what happens next, youíll just have to read
Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life. Then you might want to try some
sustainable agriculture in your own backyard. Next youíll probably want
to visit Bali. Jan Reynolds ó who drives a peanut-oil-fuelled car ó has
written and photographed a true fable that could change the world. Share
it with your grownups.